Tanzania sets 2040 target to eradicate sheep, goat disease

DAR ES SALAAM: ERADICATING Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR), a highly contagious disease affecting sheep and goats, has become a key priority for Tanzania as the country seeks to protect livestock, household incomes and food security while reducing the economic losses associated with animal deaths and restricted access to markets. Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious viral disease that mainly affects goats and sheep, causing severe illness and deaths and threatening the livelihoods of communities that depend on small ruminants. The disease is particularly significant for rural households because sheep and goats are not only sources of food and income but also valuable assets that can be sold quickly to meet urgent family needs.

Its control therefore has implications beyond animal health, extending to livelihoods, women and youth who depend on small ruminants, as well as regional livestock trade. For Tanzania, achieving eradication will require sustained vaccination, stronger surveillance and early detection, but also cooperation with neighbouring countries because livestock and communities regularly move across national borders. Regional animal health authorities have consequently been promoting coordinated surveillance, risk-based vaccination, information sharing and preparedness as part of efforts to interrupt transmission across shared livestock systems.

Speaking during the Regional PPR Buffer Ecosystems Workshop in Dar es Salaam, Deputy Minister for Livestock and Fisheries, Ms Ng’wasi Kamani said Tanzania had set a strategic target to eradicate PPR by 2040 while strengthening cooperation with Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). “There are diseases that we have managed to eradicate in the past through efforts such as these, for example rinderpest disease, and we expect that if we continue well and sustain the efforts we have started, we will eradicate this sheep and goat disease by 2040,” Ms Kamani said. Ms Kamani said Tanzania had previously faced livestock diseases that caused deaths, economic losses and difficulties in accessing regional and international markets, adding that the country could draw lessons from diseases it had successfully eradicated in the past.

She said the international eradication timeline for PPR had initially been set at 2030 but had subsequently been extended by another 10 years, giving cou…